Beautiful Patterns Edition 2023: A Glimmer of Hope in Areas of Social Disaster Through Engineering and Reducing the Gender Gap in the Professional Field Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • Beautiful Patterns emerged in 2017 as a collaborative initiative between MIT in the US and Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. The goal of the Beautiful Patterns bootcamp is to encourage more female high school students to take an interest in university careers in STEM areas, especially in Engineering fields. The original objective of reducing the professional gender gap has been preserved in all editions of Beautiful Patterns, always upholding the idea that in several Latin American countries or those with modest economic development, at least half of the human capital, mostly constituted by women, is not being addressed and developed at the university and professional level. Over the years, Beautiful Patterns has been successfully organized in both in-person and virtual formats, the latter emerging during the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, Beautiful Patterns has had around 6,000 participants, mainly from Mexico, in at least 11 different cities each year and in 16 different countries in its virtual format. About 1,400 female engineering students have participated in organizing and teaching courses at this bootcamp. For the 2023 edition of Beautiful Patterns at Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Aguascalientes, a decision was made to make additional efforts and create conditions for high school female students from highly marginalized areas to participate. We were able to include female students from places where prostitution and domestic confinement are the only alternatives for the future of the young Mexican women who live there, in a context of drug addiction and family disintegration. Additionally, successful female engineers from various companies interacted with the participants while the general intention of the bootcamp was to make an impact on them through the concept of role modelling. This article will present the development and figures of the impact achieved with the bootcamp in its 2023 Edition. © 2024 IEEE.

publication date

  • January 1, 2024